The Commentary Week in Review is posted on the blog every Friday. Drawing from more than two dozen English-language news outlets worldwide, the column highlights a handful of the week’s notable op-eds. Normally, in our Commentary Week in Review, we highlight five notable op-eds from the week, on the theory that a review of the world’s opinion pages can’t hope to be comprehensive, but can merely highlight a few interesting or excellent examples among the very diverse smorgasbord of subjects and points of view that are covered each week in newspapers and magazines from New York and Washington to Mumbai, [...]
Paul Wiseman’s story in USA Today Feb. 14 is heartening. The Philippines, with U.S. help, is making progress against its homegrown Islamists: CAMP BAUTISTA, Philippines — Thousands of miles from the bazaars of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, U.S. military forces are quietly helping defeat terrorists in the jungles of the southern Philippines, a forgotten front in the global war on terrorism. Working behind the scenes with a rejuvenated Philippine military, U.S. special forces have helped kill, capture or rout hundreds of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas who have links to the Islamic terror groups Jemaah Islamiyah and al-Qaeda, Philippine and [...]
In perhaps the best example yet of how international the politics of the upcoming U.S. Presidential race are destined to be, Australian Prime Minister John Howard pulled no punches in his reaction to Democratic Senator Barak Obama’s announcement this weekend that he will seek the presidency in 2008. “If I was running al-Qaida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats,” Howard, a staunch conservative and ally to the Bush administration told Australia’s Nine Network television on Sunday. Obama [...]
